Anders
Anders, real name unknown, was a Human Mage and member of the Ferelden Circle of Magi before the events of The Fifth Blight. A rebellious and free spirit with a strong sense of justice and anger towards the persecution of his people, Anders would frequently flee the Circle Tower, forcing the Templars to hunt him down and capture him each time, until the cycle was finally broken by his meeting with The Warden-Commander, leading to his recruitment into the Grey Wardens. He would eventually move to Kirkwall, the former slaver city located in the Free Marches, where he would join the party of Hawke, who would eventually ascend to the title of Champion of Kirkwall. History Dragon Age: Origins: Awakening After his seventh escape attempt from the Circle Tower in Ferelden, Anders managed to evade his Templar pursuers long enough to escape into the arling of Amaranthine, before he was finally cornered and captured. During the trip to return him to Ferelden's Tower, he and his Templar Jailers took a brief respite in the Grey Warden fortress, Vigil's Keep, just as The Withered and his Darkspawn forces assaulted to base, killing numerous workers and soldiers. Seeing his chance to escape again, Anders refused to help the Templars fight the Darkspawn, allowing the monsters to slay his captors, before incinerating the Darkspawn himself- just in time to encounter The Warden-Commander and Mhairi, who reluctantly agreed to work alongside the Mage to drive the Darkspawn back. Anders used his Spirit Healing powers to support his new allies' close combat skills while fighting off Darkspawn hordes at a distance, eventually cornering and defeating The Withered on the roof, saving Vigil's Keep. With the siege on Vigil's Keep broken, Anders attended the meeting with the Ruler of Ferelden (Either Alistair Theirin, Loghain Mac Tir or Anora Theirin depending on choices made in Dragon Age: Origins), alongside the Templar Rylock, who demanded that Anders be hanged as a murderer, assuming that he had killed his Templar Captors. In order to save his life, the Warden-Commander decided to step in and invoke the Right of Conscription, an ancient law that allows the Grey Wardens to forcibly recruit someone into their ranks to ensure the Darkspawn can be fought in times of crises, leaving him outside the jurisdiction of the Circle and allowing him the closest experience to freedom he had in his entire life. Over the course of his adventures with The Warden-Commander, Anders met and became close friends with Justice, a Spirit from The Fade which had become trapped in the body of the deceased Warden, Kristoff. While Anders asked Justice many questions about the nature of Spirits, and how they differed from Demons, Justice in turn often interrogated Anders about what he perceived to be the Mage's selfishness in constantly trying to run away instead of using his powers and skills to defend the Mages and fight against the tyranny of the Templars. Anders also met Nathaniel Howe during these journeys as well, and developed a vitriolic friendship with the archer. His closest and most beloved ally during these times, however, was the kitten, Ser Pounce-a-lot, an orange mouser found by the Warden-Commander outside the Vigil's Keep, and given to Anders as a gift. During one of the party's trips into the City of Amaranthine, Anders was approached by an old friend of his, an Elf named Namaya, causing him to reveal to the Warden-Commander that the reason he had fled as far as Amaranthine to begin with was because during the Blight the Ferelden Circle moved numerous Phylacteries, glass vials containing the blood of a Mage student which would allow the Templars to track down and kill a rogue mage, in order to keep them safe from the Darkspawn, storing them in an Amaranthine storehouse. The Warden-Commander and Anders broke into the warehouse to recover the Phylactery, but they were ambushed by Rylock, who revealed that it had been a ruse to lure Anders out and that the vials had been moved long before the Mage had ever arrived in the city. The Warden-Commander could chose to hand Anders over to the Templars, or kill Rylock and her allies to protect their friend. If Anders remained in the party, he was the only member of the Warden-Commander's team to not volunteer as a member of the combat squad for the final battle with the Mother's Forces, but if he was brought along, he argues in defense of the decision to save the City of Amaranthine at the risk of the Vigil's Keep fortress, believing that it was their duty to protect the people there. He also supports killing The Architect, not trusting the talking Darkspawn. If he was left to defend Vigil's Keep, he is instead either found apparently dead or he became hailed as a hero for his use of magic to support the troops, and the men challenge him to a friendly drinking contest after the battle. Dragon Age II Roughly one year after the final battle at Vigil's Keep, Anders relationship with his fellow Wardens had become much more strained, especially after the Warden-Commander's departure. First, the Wardens forced him to get rid of Ser Pounce-a-lot, claiming that the cat had made him too weak, and second, when Kristoff's body became unusable from decay, Anders volunteered to serve as a host body for his friend. However, when Anders and Justice became one, all the repressed hatred and anger inside the Mage corrupted the Spirit of Justice into a Demon of Vengeance. Accusing him of becoming an Abomination, the Wardens turned on Anders and brought the Templars down on him, forcing him to kill many and flee- heading for the refugee's paradise of Kirkwall, in the Free Marches. After arriving, Anders quickly set up a free clinic in the underground Darktown beneath the rest of the city, where he used his magical skills to save lives and take care of his fellow Ferelden refugees. Through this role, he encountered the one who would become the Champion of Kirkwall, Hawke. At the time, Hawke was working with Varric Tethras to organize an expedition into the Deep Roads with Varric's brother. Hawke had tracked Anders down because, as a former Warden, no one had more experience with navigating the Darkspawn infested tunnels, and Anders revealed he even possessed maps of the underground, and though he was reluctant to ever return to the Deep Roads, he agreed to join Hawke's expedition if Hawke helped him break into the Chantry to meet with his good friend and Circle contact, Karl Thekla. Breaking into the Chantry after hours, Anders and Hawke found Karl, but were horrified to realize that the Templars had already turned the man Tranquil- burning out his personality and emotions while severing him from his connection to The Fade. Enraged, Anders lost control and allowed Justice to take control of his body, slaughtering numerous Templars before calming down. Due to Anders' Fade-Spirit Connection, Justice's rampage temporarily restored Karl's humanity, and the man used his last brief moments to beg Anders to kill him, preferring to die as a free mage than live as a Templar puppet, a request Anders honored, cutting his old friend's throat open with his knife. During the Expedition, if Hawke chooses to bring either Bethany Hawke or Carver Hawke and Anders, Anders is able to save Hawke's sibling when they are infected with Darkspawn taint, keeping them alive long enough to bring them to the Grey Wardens lead by Stroud. While Stroud was hesitant to take the younger Hawke into the Wardens, claiming that the life of a Warden was a calling not simply a charity, Anders would manage to persuade him otherwise. Without Anders' aid, the younger Hawke sibling would simply die of their Darkspawn infection in the Deep Roads. Three years later, Anders had become a key figure in the Mage Underground, a secret organization attempting to move and protect Mages seeking freedom and asylum from the abuses of the Templars. Anders' clinic, while still serving the refugees, had been getting fewer and fewer patients, and when Hawke came by to visit him, he admitted that he had been losing control of Justice/Vengeance far more frequently. Shortly after rejoining Hawke's Party, Anders came across "The Tranquil Solution", a horrifying plot masterminded by the Templar Ser Otto Alrik. Alrik was well known as one of the crueler Templars in Kirkwall, with frequent counts of raping Circle Apprentices and then forcing Tranquility upon them to keep them from speaking out against his abuse while also keeping them from resisting future sexual abuse. Alrik had been attempting to pass a plan that would solve the problem of Mage Uprisings in Kirkwall by simply turning every Mage in the Free Marches Tranquil. Anders and Hawke descended into the Underground Tunnels leading beneath the former Slave Gallows where the Mages were kept, where they found Alrik. Alrik and his men had cornered Ella, a young Mage, and were threatening to turn her Tranquil for running away from them. Once again overcome with absolute fury, Anders gave into Justice/Vengeance and, alongside Hawke, slaughtered the Templars and murdered Ser Alrik. Even with Alrik dead, however, Justice/Vengeance's anger had not been sated, and when Ella referred to him as a Demon, the spirit snapped, enraged at her inability to fight for the Circle and her people. If Hawke intervened, Anders was able to regain control moments before the spirit could murder the girl, terrifying him and causing him to flee. Otherwise, Vengeance swiftly murders Ella, an act that shocks control back to Anders, who is mentally crushed by the act. Regardless of the outcome, Hawke is able to find a letter on Alrik's corpse revealing that both the Knight-Commander Meredith Stannard andthe Divine Justice had actually declined to follow through on Alrik's Tranquil Solution, news that returned some small measure of hope for a peaceful solution to Anders' troubled mind. Throughout the year, Anders continued to support Hawke's adventures. If he was one of the party members brought into The Fade to try and save Feynriel, Justice took complete control of the Mage's body. Unlike the rest of the members of the party, the two demons were completely unable to seduce Justice and turn him against Hawke, but should Hawke decided to strike a deal with the demon Torpor in the end, Justice will attack, forcing Hawke to defeat him and knock both Justice and Anders out of the Fade. Afterwards, Anders was furious with Hawke and if they were romantic partners, he ends it, telling Hawke that he should look to Merril if they like Demons so much. If Hawke agreed with Torpor but then turned on the demon, Hawke was able to regain a great deal of approval and respect from Anders by explaining that agreeing with the Demon's plan had been a ruse to lower its guard and defeat it. If Hawke was able to resist the temptation and fight off the demon, Anders was proud of Hawke's resolve. If Anders was present when Hawke investigated Bartrand's mansion with Varric, only Anders was capable of using his magic to return Bartrand's sanity temporarily, removing the cloud of the Red Lyrium Idol and allowing the party to choose to place Bartrand in a mental asylum with the hopes of his recovery, otherwise Varric was forced to murder him. Regardless of the choices, Anders remained an ally of Hawke's when the Arishok lead the Qunari out of the docks to to burn Kirkwall to the ground and was witness to the Arishok's death and Hawke's ascension to Champion of Kirkwall. Three years after that, Anders was one of the only members of the Mage Underground left alive- the rest having been crushed by Knight-Commander Meredith. Anders told Hawke that he had discovered a recipe for a potion developed by the ancient Tevinter Imperium which would split Anders and Justice without harming either and without having to rely on Blood Magic. Hawke, eager to help their friend, agreed to go with Anders to collect Sela Petrae from beneath Darktown and Drakestone from the Bone Pits Mine. With the ingredients gathered, Anders asked Hawke to sneak him into the Chantry without the Grand Cleric noticing him, though he refused to elaborate on the why. In a conversation back at the clinic afterwards, Anders would offer a different explanation depending on his friendship status with Hawke. If Anders had a complete friendship rating, he would admit that at this point, Justice and Vengeance are too entwined to tell the difference or to save his old friend, he thanked Hawke for always standing beside him and tried to console that whatever would occur next, it wouldn't be Hawke's fault. If Anders and Hawke were friends but not maxed out, Anders only warned Hawke that the countdown to war has begun, and the clock would soon reach midnight. If Anders and Hawke were rivals, Hawke could successfully convince Anders to undo whatever he did in the Chantry, only for Justice/Vengeance to assume complete control of Anders and demand that Hawke leave while leaving Anders' memories of their conversation a blank, afterwards Anders admitted that he had been losing more and more of his memory at Justice's hands, and that he was losing the battle to control his former friend. In the end, Anders used the potion he and Hawke constructed to blow up the Chantry in a massive explosion, killing the Grand Cleric and numerous innocent people, claiming that he had removed any chance of compromise because there couldn't be any compromise in the freedom of Mages. Seeing the Grand Cleric murdered by a Mage, Knight-Commander Meredith decided to enact the Right of Annulment, which would give the Templar Order the right to murder every Mage in the Kirkwall Circle, forcing Hawke to chose between supporting the Mages or the Templars. Regardless of the decision, Anders' ultimate fate is left in the hands of Hawke: If Anders and Hawke were friends, Anders insisted that because he and Justice were now one being, the responsibility for the action was his own and that he should die for his crimes. Hawke could either kill Anders/Justice/Vengeance as he wished, or convince Anders to fight alongside the party to clean up the mess of his own making. If Anders and Hawke were rivals, Anders expresses deep regret that he wasn't able to contain and control Vengeance and stop him from committing the atrocity, and begged Hawke to end his life before there was nothing left of the original Anders to even kill. Hawke could either comply, or convince him to join with the Templars, though he implied after doing so, he would take his own life. If Anders is spared in any scenario, Sebastian Vael will quit the party in furious rage, swearing to retake his homeland of Starkhaven, and bring the full force of the Starkhaven army down on Anders and Hawke. If Anders survived the final battle, and was romanced, he flees Kirkwall with the rest of Hawke's party when the Mage-Templar War erupted from the aftermath of their actions there, and as time passed, only he remained by his lover's side. If they were only friends and he was spared, he traveled with Hawke until time and circumstance eventually forced him to part, same as the rest of the party save Hawke's lover. Dragon Age II: Legacy After the Mage-Templar War began, a member of the Seekers of Truth, Cassandra Pentaghast, captured Varric and demanded that he tell the story of Hawke and the start of the war. During his telling, Cassandra accused Varric of leaving out the story of what occurred in the Vimmark Mountains, and demanded he elaborate on them. Varric, for his part, explained that he only skipped the events because they weren't relevant to her original query and he didn't think she would even believe him, but agreed to tell the story anyway. At some point during their adventures, Hawke was attacked by crazed members of the Dwarven Carta who sought the Blood of the Hawke to free their master. Hawke gathered the party and their younger sibling (if they weren't killed by Darkspawn Taint in the Deep Roads), and traveled to their base near the Vimmark Mountains region, leading into the Deep Roads where a massive Grey Warden Super-Prison had been constructed. There they met Larius, a former Warden-Commander who had been driven mad as he survived his Calling and transformed into a tainted Ghoul. Larius explained that the prison had been constructed around an intelligent, talking Darkspawn who had more power than any the Wardens had ever faced before- Corypheus. Anders immediately connected Corypheus' description to The Architect, and would warn Hawke against the plans of Janeka, a Grey Warden who sought to bind Corypheus to her will and use him as a weapon. Larius would also explain that the reason Hawke's blood was needed was because their father, Malcolm Hawke, had been the last Mage to seal the prison wards and that only Hawke's blood could break the Wards. Larius proposed that Hawke and the party free Corypheus, but use the Darkspawn's awakening as an opportunity to slay it before it could get free naturally. As the party traveled through the prison, Anders could feel the sleeping Corypheus' mystical influence seep into his mind and attempt to warp his perspective and make him a servant of the Darkspawn. The strain of keeping Corypheus in check, as well as keeping Justice/Vengeance from over taking him at the same time reduced Anders' effectiveness, and eventually caused him to completely lose control and attack the party. When the team finally reached and freed Corypheus, the Darkspawn identified itself as one of the ancient Tevinter Magisters who had worshiped the first Old God to become an Archdemon, Dumat. Corypheus had been one of the Magisters that the Chant of Light claimed traveled to the Golden City of The Maker in their hubris and corrupted it into the Black City and created the Darkspawn- a story that Anders had always disbelieved as nothing more than propaganda to allow the Chantry to further prosecute Mages, causing a major crisis of faith for Anders. According to Corypheus, he and the Magisters had been manipulated, and the City was already Black when they reached it- something that Anders decided would require further study. Regardless, Corypheus turned and attacked the party, forcing Anders and the party to fight and kill him- though in his final moments, Corypheus managed to transfer his consciousness into either Larius or Janeka, escaping the party's notice. Dragon Age: Inquisition Anders is confirmed to appear in Dragon Age: Inquisition, assuming he survived the events of Dragon Age II. Non-Canon History Heroes of Dragon Age In the Nexus, several different versions of Anders were pulled from throughout the multiverse to relive historical battles throughout the history of Thedas. One such Anders was based on his appearance in Dragon Age: Origins: Awakening, and was an Epic tier, Red Faction unit that could attack columns of units, though he possessed no exemplary skills or extra abilities. Another Anders, based on his appearance in Dragon Age II when being possessed by Justice, Vengeance Anders, was also playable, as a Legendary Tier unit from the Blue Faction that attacked all targets at once, and provided a 50% healing bonus to fellow Mages on his team, and a 25% bonus damage to enemies from the Blighted faction. Both versions of Anders wer classified as "Slow" units, meaning their attacks would be one of the last in the initiative que. Appearances * Dragon Age Origins: Awakening (2010) * Dragon Age Origins: Witch Hunt (2010) (Mentioned) * Dragon Age II (2011) ** Dragon Age II: The Exiled Prince (2011) ** Dragon Age II: Legacy (2011) ** Dragon Age II: Mark of the Assassin (2011) * Heroes of Dragon Age (2013) * Dragon Age Keep (2014) * Dragon Age: Inquisition (2014) Category:Characters Category:Playable Characters Category:Bioware Category:Party Member